South Korea vs Saudi Arabia – Preview & Prediction (Sep. 10, 2026)

South Korea are taking these Asian Games very seriously and have announced they are aiming for the gold medal. Winning the gold will be tough for them because there are better teams in the tournament, but they have enough quality and depth to be in the mix. Led by the foreign head coach Nikolajs Mazurs, the Korean team has been unstable – in the recent World Cup window they lost heavily on the road to Lebanon, which made the entire Korean public and coaching scene turn against coach Mazurs. He was under huge pressure ahead the of clash against Saudi Arabia, but his team managed to win routinely at home 85:72 led by Hyunjung Lee, who has just signed an NBA contract with the Portland Trailblazers. In these Asian Games, South Korea will be led by their biggest star Hyunjung Lee, who wants to leave a permanent mark on Asian basketball before he flies to Portland to chase his NBA dream. Besides him, Koreans have a couple of other standout players like Junghyun Lee, Youngjun An and Jun Seok Yeo, so it will be interesting to see how far they go. They have been drawn into an intriguing group with the tournament hosts Japan, Saudi Arabia and one of the main dark horses, Indonesia. Overall, we think they are the strongest team in this group because Japan are playing with their B squad and they recently beat this Saudi team in the World Cup qualifiers by 13 points.

Having an NBA-caliber player like Hyunjung Lee in their lineup is a big advantage for Korea. He is probably one of the best if not the best player in this entire tournament, so the Korean team is poised for big things. If they fail to win a medal with an NBA stalwart on their roster, head coach Mazurs will most probably lose his job because the expectations of the public are massive.

If it wasn´t for one of the best centers in Asia Mohammed Alsuwailem and star scorer from Europe Muhammad Abdur-Rahkman, Saudi Arabia would be in the bottom tier in Asian basketball. With those two names along with experienced veterans like Khalid Abdel Gabar and Mathna Almarwani, Saudi Arabia are currently an average team in Asian terms but can upset the heavyweights when they have a good shooting day. In the recent World Cup qualifier clash in Korea, the Saudis were down by double-digits in the second half but launched a furious comeback in the final frame only to lose by 13 points after receiving three technical fouls in the final seconds. In this group, they are about the same level as Japan´s B team, which is even slightly better, while compared to Indonesia´s star-studded roster, they are even weaker because the Indonesians have four naturalized imports and have a real chance of taking down Saudi Arabia and progressing. Today, the chances of the Saudis are extremely slim but they definitely shouldn´t get blown out because of the firepower of their star Abdur-Rahkman.

It will be very difficult for the Saudi team in this very awkward group. Indonesia have their strongest roster in history and look capable of beating them, while Japan´s B squad will still be a handful for their limited team. Against the main group favourite South Korea, they don´t stand a chance and we are expecting them to lose routinely by double-digits.